Self & Society: British Lit @Hood College

Book 2 opens up with Satan debating on whether he and his demons should try and fight God again to overthrow his power. I don't understand why they are still trying because they failed once already. Do they not understand that they cannot be greater than God? This section gives the arguments of the four demons on what they think they should do. Satan asks his demons what they think their best option would be: go to war or give it up. Why doesn't Satan just come up with the plan himself? Beelzebub says, "...seduce them to our party that their God may prove their foe and with repenting hand abolish His own works" (2.368-370). He believes that he can get God's people to follow them and leave their ruler. What are they thinking? https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjK7Pf2o7_XAhXH7BQKHUxhBfMQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvriley.edublogs.org%2Ftag%2Fparadise-lost%2F&psig=AOvVaw0iWeZ9N6g5F9DfRA-h2JeN...

It's weird reading about demons who are trying to figure out how to deal with their situation. When I usually think of demons I think of beings who enjoy the flames and torment. In Paradise Lost he makes them out to be suffering. Yet this suffering doesn't affect their ability to have a council and decide what to do with their current situation. These fallen angels are very human-like. I guess that explains why the fallen angels say that humans are "created like... us though less in pow'r and excellence" (349-350). I am enjoying the 'fresh' perspective on demons and angels. http://thepinoycatholic.blogspot.com/2014/01/council-of-trent-happened-450-years-ago.html

There were two major things that caught me off guard while reading this text. The first is that I was pleasantly surprised to find Milton's use of calling on the Muses to help write this ("Sing Heav'nly Muse"). It's very reminiscent of Ancient Greek epic poetry, and to me, it signified that there would be trials and tribulations waiting for these characters. The second is that Satan is apparently the size of Classical Greek Titans and Giants??? I had always imagined him as being a bit bigger than the average sized human (maybe like 9 foot tall, max), but I suppose now I know where the whole depiction of Satan being a terrifyingly ginormous guy came from. I think that the most confusing thing about this is the setting? It sounds like Satan and Beezebub are floating in a fiery lake, but then all the other fallen are in a fiery lake as well? Did I read that right? Is it the same lake or are there a bunch of fiery lakes in Hell? Also, are the rest of the fallen as big...

When I was reading this section of Paradise Lost , the lines that immediately struck me were "One, who brings/ A mind not to be chang'd by place or time./ The mind is its own place, and in itself/ Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven" (252-255) and "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven" (263). I'm not incredibly well-versed in biblical stories, but what I had gathered was that Hell was a place that Lucifer was banished to. However, Milton is writing as if Hell is Lucifer's safe haven from God, a place where he can finally be free. It also seems that Lucifer swears to perform evil deeds not because he specifically desires to, but because it is the exact opposite of what God is supposed to do. Even within these first 375 lines, Milton is creating a character that is much more layered than what is commonly believed, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out later on. 

"Adam and Eve with the Serpent, (Genesis IIIA, verse 6" engraving by Francesco Villamena https://art.famsf.org/francesco-villamena/adam-and-eve-serpent-genesis-iii-verse-6-19633036286     The opening lines of Paradise Lost contain the traditional invocation of the Muses, as the poet calls upon the Divine to inspire his tale. The rest of this section describes the insurrection of angels in Heaven, their punishment, and the continuing plot to subvert the creations of God. Is it just me, or is the difference between some of these demons/fallen angels really unclear? It feels like no two stories can agree. Some versions have Beelzebub, Lucifer, Asmodeus, et cetera presented as seperate entities, while others claim these are all names for the same being known to different cultures. Is this the result of Christianity absorbing so many other religious traditions during its history? 

I love the way that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switch roles from the beginning to the end of the play. Initially, Macbeth is apprehensive and afraid to commit murder, but Lady Macbeth is assertive and confident in their abilities to be on the throne. By Act 5, Macbeth has become overly-confident in his security and fighting abilities, claiming that no man can strike him down because of his false interpretation of the witches prophecies. Lady Macbeth has taken to sleep walking and muttering about her bloody hands because of her overwhelming guilt and paranoia. This is especially ironic because earlier she told Macbeth that a little water would wash away the evidence, but she is walking around at night worrying about how to remove the stains. As Lady Macbeth unhinges, Macbeth takes on the role she initially played. Lady Macbeth's suicide is profound to me because I would have expected Macbeth to kill himself and Lady Macbeth to have been murdered based on the first two acts. https:/...

Your conscience is so powerful at times that it can haunt you. Scene one shows the perfect representation of what happens when something is weighing heavy on ones conscience. In this scene Lady Macbeth is being observed for her sleep walking. While she was being observed the doctor saw that Lady Macbeth kept washing "blood" off her hands saying, "Out, damned spot, out I say!..." She began to feel guilty for the death of Duncan. Even though she didn't physically commit the murder she played a role in his death. No matter how much she scrubbed she could not get the smell off her hands, she asked, will her hands ever be clean and that all the perfumes of Arabia cant sweeten her hand. Why did she feel so guilty if she didn't commit the crime? http://www.istockphoto.com/photos/bloody-hand?excludenudity=true&sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=bloody%20hand

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151207-ecuadors-mysterious-walking-trees I thought that the prophecies of the witches were handled like a prophecy from an oracle in Greek literature. Where it was by some unthinkable actions and word play that eventually lead to the prophecies coming true. That lead to the whole theme of free will. I enjoyed how the witches prophesied that he would die when the woods moved to Dunsinane Hill. That came true because the soldiers brought the woods to him to hide the number of soldiers. The prophesy that Macbeth wouldn't be killed by a man born from woman came true in a weird way, where "Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped" (5, 8, 19-20). He really should have heeded the first prophesy that said to beware Macduff.

After Macbeth kills Duncan, there are several references to demons and the unnatural, hinting (not so subtly) that Macbeth is going to hell. During Scene 2, no matter how much he tried, Macbeth could not say "Amen" after the men said, "God Bless Us." While he can still say the word itself, he is no longer able to use it in a prayer. Whether this is his own subconscious preventing him due to his own feelings of guilt or because he is well and truly damned is debatable. Later, Macbeth says, "No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ Making the green one red" (2.2.79-81). This seems to be saying that none of the seas in the world will wash his hands clean (that they would turn red instead), but the final line "Making the green one red" (2.2.81) could suggest Macbeth murdered out of envy (green with envy). Something I found to be interesting was when Lennox said, "Some say the Earth was feverous and did shake" (2.3....

Act II of Macbeth highlights Lady Macbeth's cunning and manipulative personality. After the murder, Macbeth is becoming paranoid and already showing signs of regret for killing the King. Meanwhile,  Lady Macbeth is able to stay clam and orchestrate the rest of their plan while her husband is panicking, being mindful not to leave any loose ends that could incriminate the two. However, Macbeth also shows his ability to manipulate others based on the way he reacts to the news of the King's murder the next morning, even though he was losing his mind the night before. Image from the Wikipedia page on drama

Act 2 of Macbeth led me to thinking about the crime solving strategies of Macbeth's time. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth craftily blame the death of the king on his servants simply by placing the murder dagger wisely. The princes Malcolm and Donalbain are soon blamed because they fled the area. The court of assumptions is the judge of this murder already. The entire situation reminds one of the importance of even basic crime solving practices. At Macbeth's point in time it seems the only way to reliably catch the true criminal is to catch someone in the act.

Lady Macbeth, contemplating the sleeping King Duncan. image from Wikipedia           In act 2 scene 2, Macbeth tells his wife that the two servants had awoken before he could kill them  (lines 30-44). Included in this section of dialogue is more proof that he knows is actions are wrong "As they had seen me with these hangman's hands, List'ning their fear. I could not say "Amen" when they did say "God bless us". (lines 37-40) On line 44, Macbeth says that the Amen "stuck in his throat". what he did was murder, and he knows it so deep within the core of his being that his voice rebels at this false act of piety. His later inability to sleep is a further expression of this guilt.       Later, in scenes 3 and 4, we learn that Macbeth's claim that he discovered the servants in the act of murder and killed them, has been accepted, and that Donalbain and Malcolm are suspected of ordering the assassination, since they fled out of fear...

In the Wife of Bath's Tale there is a knight that is talked about. From my understanding he took advantage of a girl and the King wanted to kill him. I did some googling and this was what I gathered from it. So he basically raped this girl for no other reason than that he simply wanted to. Then these girls begged the King not to kill him and sent him instead on a mission. A mission to find out what it is that women really want. I found this odd, I remember thinking it was strange in high school as well when I read this. Why would they want him to stay alive after he did that awful thing, and why would they send him on such a wild goose chase. Theres the phrase, "A happy wife is a happy life" and this came to mind while I was reading because there is such truth in that statement. The Knight ends up coming up with the answer that women just want control of the relationship. This is an interesting concept, and I agree to a certain extent. Women like to be in control and have...

The answer to Queen Guinevere's question was that women want to rule over their husbands and love (not as in to completely dominate, but as a good ruler would, hence using the word "sovereignty"). During the story, we see the Knight go from being a man, who had completely taken away a maiden's choice when he raped her, to a man who willingly yielded the power over him to his much older wife. The Knight learned his lesson, but no matter how many times I read this, I still can't get over him both living and having his happy ending. Something I'm curious about is whether the old woman knew of his crime. He never tells her why he's searching for what women want, so does she know? If so, why did she want to marry him? If not, I wonder what her reaction would be? Credit: StoryboardThat by subaca http://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/subaca/the-wife-of-bath%27s-tale

In the Wife of Bath's Tale, the knight's wife gives him the option to have an old, ugly wife that will be true to him, or a young, pretty wife that will be unfaithful. However, he gives her the power to choose, inherently giving her a degree of sovereignty in the relationship. As a reward, she turns into a young, beautiful woman and they live happily ever after. The idea that the correct answer to the wife's question was not to answer, but instead let her decide, is reminiscent of  what the Wife of Bath desires in her own marriages: power over her spouse, or at least an equal relationship. However, since the old woman was the only one who knew this, it can be speculated that the majority of people, at least in Chaucer's story, aren't aware of what women want in marriages, and therefore many wives may have been unhappy.  The Witch posing as an old woman to test the Prince's kindness. From Disney's Beauty and the Beast (disney.wikia.com).

The Wife of Bath’s Tale confused what I thought I knew about the gender structures of medieval times. The passage’s final words of wisdom were essentially that women want power. Whether over the home or the husband, The Wife of Bath’s Tale is saying women want power over it. This directly contradicts the accepted property laws of the time that gave the man of the house total ownership over all a family’s land. If this was the correct answer to not have the knight’s head chopped off, why does it not reflect the law more closely?

from Monty Python anth the Holy Grail (1975)     With the Wife of Bath's tale, Chaucer continues poking the fear held by men in his time (and indeed, still held by many) of women in command of their own sexuality, lives, and property. The Wife's tale draws from the stories of King Arthur. A young knight rapes a ypung woman of Arthur's court, and Arthur gives the Queen the duty of deciding an appropriate punishment. To such men, who believe that one sex must be dominant, having their punishment for crimes against a womanbe decided by women would be their worst nightmare

I found the description of the Summoner very interesting. Chaucer seems to do very well with showing the characteristics of characters introduced in the poem. Summoner is described as "[a guy with] black and scabby brows and [a] scanty beard, He had a face that all the children feared." This shows how scary this man looked and how people feared him because of the way he looked. This reminded me of the detail description of the Knights son and how he was very "vain." It's very ironic that he is described as this ugly, scary man but later in the text it says that "and knew hir counseil, and was al hir reed." This showed how he knew the secrets of the girls and provided counsel for them. The footnote defines a summoner as a officer who appeared before the court. He was portrayed as a helper and counselor to these girl, but was introduced as being someone who children feared and that wasn't the case.

The Prioress is described as trying to look very beautiful and distinguished, but it also seems like Chaucer, at the least, does not see her like this. He describes her as gap toothed and explains that her accent is not proper because she doesn't pronounce words correctly. She seems to think of herself as a catch, but I don't think anyone else on the pilgrimage is buying it based on Chaucer's description. He says her smile is "simple and coy" which leads me to believe she is acting shy and stupid to get attention. She is also carrying a small dog in her purse that she feeds regularly. This made me laugh because certain celebrities I can think of are associated with carrying small dogs in their purses, are also famous for being attractive. I don't think carrying your small dog automatically makes you attractive like the Prioress hopes. The most baffling detail of her appearance is her broach that reads "love conquers all" in the translation. As a nun,...

A simple golden ring image source: https://doubtfulsea.com/tag/ring/      On line 35, during the description of Scyld, king of the Scyldings and grandfather to Hrothgar, is refered to as "dispenser of rings". On line 350, Wulfgar referes to Hrothgar by a similar epithet, "giver of rings". what is the significance? The purpose of rings and similar jewelry is to provide a means of displaying wealth in a very conspicuous manner. After a battle or some other significant event, a king might give such items as a reward for loyal or conspicuous service. A man with many rings of silver and gold would be wealthy indeed. Giving a ruler like Scyld or Hrothgar an epithet like "ring giver"  implies benevolence to their people and generosity to their allies and to those who serve them well, in addition to their wealth and ability to rule.